The Macksville City Library celebrated Kansas Reads to Preschoolers Month by sharing the book "Little Nita’s BIG Idea" with Macksville Grade School Preschoolers. The story is written by Anna W. Bardaus and illustrated by Carolina Farias.
The story is about Little Nita, who has a BIG and delicious idea to serve her community. To make her idea a reality, she invites her neighbors to help, and the fun begins.
The library hosted the morning and afternoon Pre-K classes. Students listened to the story, brainstormed all the fruits they could think of, and then had a scavenger hunt to find colorful figurines and fruits hidden throughout the library. Fruits were added to the fruit bowl to make a colorful toy “salad.”
Students then colored an activity sheet about fruits and drew a picture of themselves with their favorite fruit. Watermelons, grapes, bananas, strawberries and pineapples were some of the favorite fruits in both classes.
Finally, we ended with a tasty snack. While Nita’s Big Idea was to make the World’s Largest Fruit Salad, our littler idea was to make Macksville’s Tiniest Fruit Salad! Kids enjoyed sampling a mix of dried mangoes, dried strawberries, dried cranberries, banana and berry yogurt bites and some Tiny Fruity Cuties cereal. Many were excited to try something new, and some even asked for more.
The Macksville City Library is excited to host this event each year, as a way to promote reading.
“Reading with children fosters more than just bonding among readers; it builds language, social-emotional skills, imagination and world awareness,” said Deputy State Librarian and Center for the Book Coordinator Valarie Lamoreaux. “The State Library of Kansas supports parents, educators, librarians — everyone who reads books with children.”
The State Library of Kansas offered each public library across the state a free copy of Little Nita’s BIG Idea so libraries could add the title to their collections. Kansas Reads to Preschoolers encourages reading to all children from birth to age five. It is a project of the Kansas Center for the Book, a program of the State Library of Kansas. The Kansas Center for the Book selects a committee of librarians and educators to identify picture books suited to reading aloud and then suggests titles to State Librarian Ray C. Walling, who makes the final selection.
BY JODY SUITER
Library Director
